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Yogi Bhajan Lecture: Meditation-A Simple Process

Excerpts from a lecture by Yogi Bhajan, February 21, 1978

The mind is beyond time and space. It is part of the Universal Mind. It is given to you as an instrument to serve you. What happened? It became your master; you became the servant. The mind becomes a monster when it becomes your master. The mind is an angel when it is your servant. And it is all in your mind.

Meditation is the art of breaking habits, purifying the mind, and taking care of day-to-day things. How do you meditate? It's a very simple process. Most of the people in the world do not know what meditation is. They think if they can buy a mantra for one hundred fifty or seventy five dollars and sit fifteen minutes on a chair, that's meditation. Some feel if they attend Yogi Bhajan's class and learn a meditation, that's meditation. Lots of people have lots of feelings about meditation. But they do not understand real meditation.

Meditation is a process. At any time which is peaceful, normally early morning time before the dawn (when the dawn comes, the sun power, the ray energy, is more scattered and the mind is not controllable), you'll be surprised, that in a couple of minutes, a lot of thoughts will start coming to you—thoughts which you do not want to touch, the X-rated thoughts, ugly thoughts, angry thoughts, all those kinds of thoughts. If you'll let those thoughts pass by, this is meditation. All those thoughts that can pass at that moment of your life can never enter your subconscious mind, and they will not bother you again. This procedure of cleansing the mind, or not dumping a lot of thoughts in your subconscious mind, is called meditation.

Thought-Hitting

A lot of people who eat a lot of food become fat. They want to diet but they can't diet because the mind is not under control. You read a lot of books; you can't remember anything; the mind is not under your control. The meditative mind is a purely beautiful state of living. I am going to discuss with you how you can develop the meditative mind very immediately. When you control your mind, a lot of negative thoughts come to you. Now, negative is like this: (-). If you cut it in the center, what does it become? Positive: (+). So we pick up one mantra which is a positive sound thought. If that mantra is also repeated when those thoughts hit you, then minus becomes plus. In other words, we chant to make things positive and gain profit easily. It is to cut the time.

It has been seen by an experiment that it takes about three minutes to get those kinds of thoughts. And sometimes they continue to bug you for about half an hour. But, if you just physically don't move, the mind becomes still. That is the foundation or the beginning of the meditative mind. It is a purely physical process. It doesn't need any mantra. It doesn't need any teacher; it doesn't need any technique, except that the place you sit should be cozy and comfortable and your body structure should be straight. Once your mind starts becoming still and not having any thought, you will feel cozy, and that coziness cannot be described even by me.All I can tell you is that it is very comfortable, it is very cozy, and you will want to do it again and again. But in the beginning you cannot do it for a long time. Gradually, as you develop that coziness, this thought-hitting process becomes shorter and shorter.

Mantra

Some psychologists have said if you only chant, “One, one, one,” that will work. That will work for their purposes, but it won't work for great purposes. You have to have a mantra which must idealize your "isht." "Isht" means something you have a great reverence for. If a Christian has a great reverence for Jesus Christ, he can call, "Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ." It can be his mantra. There is no big problem. Mantra is something which, according to vibratory thought level, must be in a position to tune into the subconscious. Everything cannot be a mantra, and not everybody can manufacture a mantra. But if the word can be tuned in at the thought level basis into the subconscious, and it is the highest word of reverence for that person, then that is the best mantra for the person.

Why does a mantra work for you? Because mantra is always that unknown of you.I asked somebody once, "What is your mantra?" He said, "Nim." I asked the person what he meant by it. He said, "I don't know. I got it, I was given it, I paid for it, and I have been chanting it for the last eight years." I asked, "Do you enjoy it?" He said, "Yeah." I asked, "What has it done for you?" He said, "I don't know, but I like it." Though the person was innocent, didn't understand the meaning or what it did for him, his reverence for that word was so powerful that it always set in his heart something very special. And that is all you need.

Intuition

Now, these are not things which you just talk about, but you can also experience. When the mind is said to be intuitive and you develop it, it is an investment. It is as good an investment as your hair-do, as your good clothes, as your good language. And then whenever you want the answer to something, you don't have to call on anything. You have to call your own computer. Just stop yourself. And in the click of moments, your own self will talk to you.

You have to concentrate. It is the mind which can concentrate for you. The mind is given as a tool to you. Mind is not your master. Mind was given to you to serve you. You develop all other facilities of the world; air conditioned rooms, good cars, electronic instruments, but the biggest computer which you have is your mind. You never developed it.

The science of yoga says that whenever a mind can be developed to be under your control, when you do not have thoughts incoming, at that moment your mind is with you. When won't the mind give you any thought? Don't create a thought. Enjoy it. That is the first stage of the intuitive level.

First the mind should be empty, and you should enjoy it. It is cozy. And you can hang in there with that cozy mind for a while. But you'll not be in a position to hang in there for a long time. That, you have to develop. But if you can hold with your mind more than five minutes, you have set up your mind to compute for you. That is the beginning. If you can hang on with your empty mind for eleven minutes, then you can use your mind for direction. If you can have your mind with you for fifteen minutes, you can compute every consequence of your life through any sequence with your own mind.

Life is not equal for all, and it is not equivalent for all. You have to fit in at the frequency of your mind and your body. I have seen that the majority of people do not know how much their body can take. They have never assessed it. Everybody feels a body can take whatever you can give it. That is not true. Everybody has a capacity. Every mind has a frequency. You have to bring the two together, and then you have to find out who you are. That is the easiest way to live happily.